Golden secrets of the recession beaters

The way to make money in these hard times is to play to the rich or help the hard-up

The full Rich List, including an extra 1000 entries, will be published online on Tuesday

THE secret of bucking the downward slide in this year's Rich List may lie in a £100 triple-deck club sandwich and a £2.99 plate of ham and eggs.

Britain is increasingly becoming a nation of two extremes, but there are equal fortunes to be made offering luxuries to the upper crust or providing bargains for the squeezed middle classes.

Mohamed al-Fayed, 76, who has offered for sale a £1.2m Monet painting and a £1m pair of ruby-encrusted slippers from his Harrods store in London's Knightsbridge, is one of only three people among the top 100 names in the Rich List to have increased their wealth. "What recession? Not for Harrods this time," he insisted.

Last year the store posted a 9% rise in sales and profits, up from £34.8m to £55.7m, aided by shoppers from